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Lord-Kellendros In reply to LBIrwin93 [2016-02-27 22:34:59 +0000 UTC]

Soooo… you’ve never in your life heard someone say something like “That is [pause one-heartbeat] if I decide to [etc, etc…]” or “I guess I could [pause one-heartbeat] if you’re willing to [etc, etc…]?” Which is to say; yes, you’re right, commas do indicate pauses, and if you actually pay attention to how you yourself and others speak, you’ll find there are “commas” and “ellipses” all over the place in spoken word, in direct conflict with accepted grammar as regards the written word. That’s why in nearly every style manual ever written, there’s usually a short (or long) section on how, when writing dialogue/speech, most punctuation and grammar rules go out the window if you want it to “sound” right on the page.

Or to put it another way; no, that comma’s just fine there, because that’s just how people talk, and when it comes to written speech, dialogue-flow is more important than proper grammar if you want your characters to “sound” authentic.

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LBIrwin93 In reply to Lord-Kellendros [2016-02-28 07:04:33 +0000 UTC]

Not that I can recall. Yes. I know there's a difference between spoken and written word. I know this because people often talk different from how they write things out. However, since Kiba is writing a comic she should adhere to the rules of the world of written word. 

That may be true, but my point is that since Kiba has both a comma and had a bold word, it seemed a bit tedious. Bolded words often bring attention to the eye because they stand out with their darker shade from other letters. Because of this, it create a natural pause for the reader's eye. You don't need both. If, for example, Kiba just used a comma that would be fine.

And you can still use proper grammar and still have a character's dialogue sound authentic. Most likely you should not misuse punctuation even if you are trying to mirror how people talk. And you have to remember that everyone talks differently. Some people use a lot of slang, others use high-fluent vocabulary, and still other people may stutter or ramble. You need to know the rules of grammar before you can use them to create interesting dialogue and characters. To make compelling dialogue, ideally, it would be reflective of the character's personality to make it authentic. Beside, the one punctuation mark that is misused, in my opinion, for the sake of authenticity is the apostrophe because of the writer wanted to reflect the use of slang and certain annunciations of certain words, like "nothin'" instead of "nothing." Basically, it's better to know grammar before you can bend it your will. At least, that's what I learned from my Grammar for Writers class I took a year ago. I still have the books if I need a refresher, but, really, my instructor made things easy for us to understand, which is saying something because I initially took the class to brush up on my grammar and maybe learn some new things.

PS- You misused the semi-colon, just let you know. It's to join two independent clauses together. This is often the case when you want to give equal syntactical value to each sentence or if they're related sentences. For example, instead of writing: "The day was hot. It was sunny" you could write "the day was hot; it was sunny." That might have been a poor example, but it's the best I can think of right now.

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SevyRide In reply to LBIrwin93 [2016-03-04 01:00:53 +0000 UTC]

BTW, since we're on the topic of pointing out errors, you misused "talk" the majority of the times you used it.  In most of the cases the more grammatically correct word would have been "speak."  An example from your text: "... everyone talks differently." should be"... everyone speaks differently."  There is a rather nice explanation of the subtle differences here: dictionary.cambridge.org/gramm…

Hope this helps!
-Sevy Ride

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LBIrwin93 In reply to SevyRide [2016-03-04 08:20:56 +0000 UTC]

Sorry. I have no idea who I'm talking to so I tried to respond in a non-conscending way as much as possible because people tend to easily misinterpret what others have said and why people end up bugging the shit out of each other. Although, this does explain my slip up. All I can say is that I was tired. And I do know the difference between "talk" and "speak," so there was no reason to give a link to a dictionary. If you don't want to come off as assuming anything but still want to help, you should come off as modest and well meaning. That's why I use the words "I think" and "this may not be the best example, but..."

By the way, if your comment offend was to somebody, in my opinion, pointing someone misusing a word and providing a link is more offensive than pointing out the misuse of punctuation. And I hope that for your sake, you didn't reply the way that you did because you meant to offend me. 

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